Organizing Students for Reading Instruction

Exhibit 9.3 provides information about how often teachers use different types of grouping for reading instruction. According to teachers’ reports, about one-third of the fourth grade students (32%) “always or almost always” are taught reading as a whole-class activity and most of the rest (65%) are “often or sometimes” taught as a whole class. Other grouping approaches—ability grouping, mixed-ability grouping, and assigning independent work—are used “often or sometimes” with substantial percentages of students (74, 79, and 81%, respectively) but “always or almost always” with fewer students (11, 13, and 14%).